Reform unlikely after abortion verdict

Rick Feneley and Evan Schwarten

THE NSW government has no intention of changing its abortion laws following the acquittal yesterday of a young couple in Queensland on charges of procuring an abortion and supplying drugs for the abortion.

A jury in Cairns District Court took less than an hour to find Tegan Simone Leach, 21, and her partner Sergie Brennan not guilty. They were charged after police found empty packets of the abortion drugs RU486 and Misoprostol while searching their home in an unrelated investigation in February last year. Ms Leach gripped her partner's hand as the jury's verdict was read out before tearfully thanking her legal team and hugging family members.

In his closing directions, Judge Bill Everson told the jury it needed to be satisfied the drugs Ms Leach had taken were noxious to her own health. This was a significant direction: the drugs needed to be harmful to her, as distinct from the foetus.

Pro-choice advocates in the public gallery greeted the verdict that followed a three-day trial with cheers. It remains a crime in NSW and Queensland to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. All other states and territories have reformed their laws to give women this choice.

In NSW and Queensland, women, their partners and their doctors risk jail terms unless they can prove an abortion is necessary to protect the life of the woman or her physical or mental health.

NSW Labor Party policy is to allow a conscience vote on pro-choice legislation, but a spokesman for the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, said: ''There are no plans to change the laws regarding abortion in NSW.''

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The Premier, Kristina Keneally, a Catholic, reportedly opposes abortion. Her office referred the Herald's questions to Mr Hatzistergos, whose spokesman said: ''This is an extremely sensitive issue, about which people have different but strong beliefs. The law on abortion in NSW provides a balance between competing interests in this area of the criminal law.''

Pro-choice MPs fear putting forward a bill, saying a conscience vote is likely to be defeated in Parliament - and this may set their cause back decades. In practice, they argue, abortion has become generally available and affordable in NSW.